Poor Viggo though who played a Great Man in Lord of the Rings!

Interestingly, The Road is kind of like a realistic version of Lord of the Rings if Sauron had prevailed, and the earth was turned to ash. The and Man and Boy are like Aragorn and Frodo as refugees trying to seek the safety of the Grey Havens.

I wish the adaptation of Zinn was a live action drama though.

Howard Zinn will be featured tonight on Bill Moyers's program on PBS.

Quote referring to Washington DC: You can do anything in this town if you don't care who gets the credit.

Remember the story of the gossip who asked for absolution from the priest and was told to tear a pillow open on the roof. Then the priest told her to go collect all that down as a way of showing her the impossibility of undoing the spread of an idea.

The same principal can work to challenge authority, discredit accepted mores, and expose the hidden motives of centuries old customs. Grade school teachers wield almost unlimited power.

If they pay attention to what they are doing and don't care who gets the credit they can plant seeds that grow without their student's conscious recognition of what is going on into ideals later in life that refuse to be compromised.

It happens to us all, for better or worse, and we believe fervently that we ourselves originated the choice of the project we call our lives.

Besides being a great actor you are a wise man Viggo.

"And we have a responsibility to speak out when we see injustice." "Whose voices am I not hearing?"-- Viggo Mortensen

"Be the change you wish to see in the world".-- Gandhi

I came to admire Viggo Mortensen for his campaigning with Dennis Kucinich. I hope he continues to support Dennis.

Viggo's words speak volumes:

Am I speaking up whenever I encounter an injustice?

Do I contribute to suffering in any of my actions?

Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" grabbed me by the shoulders and snapped me out of the slumber we Americans are in.

We all could be kinder and act to reduce suffering in our purchases, and in what we choose to eat.

Making a difference is sometimes a very simple and easy thing to do.

Unlike any other time in our history, the 'little guy' is now fat, lazy, stupid, greedy, spoiled and pacified.

Plus, any 'little guy' who dares to 'lead' is instantly destroyed by Big Corporate Media 24/7 worldwide in HD. Because, as we all know, 'our' government is owned by Big Corporate Everything, which also owns Big Corporate Media, which means BCM is nothing more than an arm of the corporate-owned government.

Need examples? Ralph Nader: kook. Ron Paul: crazy. Ross Perot: nutjob. Michael Moore: enemy of the state. And so on...

What 'little guy' is willing to risk everything and have his life ruined to help 'save' We The People from ourselves? And how many of those 'little guys' would be able to refuse, say, a couple million dollars from Big Whatever to shut the f**k up and go away?

P.S. - loved 'The Road'. VM should easily be nominated for an Oscar this year...

All this mans is that Obama is duh ...

Finally heard Howard Zinn in person.

Still waiting for "The Road" movie to make it to this state. The movie has been out for two weeks now... and this is the third weekend. One reviewer gave this movie their top rating. Finally, a best actor oscar for you?!!

Have you ever thought of David Cronenberg and you collaborating on a movie entitled Methuselah's Children [though not well-written] by Robert Heinlein in 1941? If you look at the world through the story of this book, events and people can be better understood.

Question Authority - old, tried and true.

Its the victors that write history - yay for the Zinnster.

Change begins at the bottom - the roots = we are the roots.
ergo those at the top are the result of what happens at the roots.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Who puts who in power?

Viggo--WOW! What a wonderful article! The only thing that kinda rubs me is that you call us all "guys". Some of us who make history are little women. But, other than that, I LOVED what you wrote. I bought Zinn's "People's History" over twenty years ago and am realy excited that its interpretation will be shown on TV. Thank you for being a part of it and for your wonderful words.

Thank you Viggo ! Yes, history has, is, and will continue to be driven by the little guys and gals who will receive little or no credit in the end for future generations to find out. This brings me to the Founding Fathers. There may be plenty to admire about them and I admire some of what they did but I also despise the fact that they get too much credit for the American Revolution while the less monied did all the dirty work to free the colonies from Britain and turn the colonies into a nation. And let us not forget that it was the people who tried to build a nation despite the weakness of the Articles of Confederation. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Founding Fathers actually copied the pig characters in George Orwell's "Animal Farm" but they were clever not to completely tip off the public. So here we were given a sort of a centralized government that opened the doors to illusional "democracy" such as what we have today what with the corporate media to make it so much more powerful that would make even Hitler and Nixon blush. From the working class folks to third parties to the few within the two parties (such as Kucinich and Paul) who actually fight for the working class, I see a pattern of marginalizing the role of the little guys and gals in history books that continues. Let us hope that the power of the Internet can stop some of that.

Way to go Viggo ! Similarly, from somewhere back down the road..." Every action is part of the problem or part of the solution" We all in this together..adelante por La Gente !
tioche, Mexico

I love Viggo Mortenson, but there is no such thing as "the little guy". I think that it was Emerson who said that "Man is a God in ruins.", and it is true. Every human being has a divine spirit. Jesus said "The Kingdom of Heaven is within." He self-realized and overcame the world, and we can do the same. There's one catch however. We have to believe, without doubt, that we can do it.

Thank you Viggo! I feel inspired. I had no idea.

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. "-- Thomas Jefferson --

He was no little guy, but he's been admired for a couple centuries.
The time for all people of good conscience to rise up draws near.

One my favorite sayings (which I may have made up myself during the Iraq War) is, and I'm sorry to say this,

Might doesn't make right... might makes history

A useful correllary, however, would be:

The knowledge of History, real history, makes the right, mighty.

That's what's so useful about Zinn's work, and yours, Viggo.

I am an admirer of the fine actor and extraordinarily conscientuous person, Viggo mortensen.

even teh choices of roles and films he has made shows his commitment to a social conscience.

EVEN in his portrayal of a major character in that monumental trilogy of movies based on JRR TOLKIEN's "LORD OF THE RINGS"...

where viggo portrayed the "hidden king" Aragorn - through his years of deprivation and then eventual ascendance to his rightful throne .

it seems that Mortensen was so moved by the story - which is about , after all, how POWER corrupts ...as with the "RING OF POWER"...

and the inherent theme of justice in the whole story ...

that he actually insisted to write his own melody in his last scene in the third movie:

his coronation and marriage to the elf princess..

to the theme of justice for all..low and mighty.

I am really happy that Viggo uses his privilege to do these things.

I remember that when the Lord of the Rings came out and was a huge celebrity around the world - Viggo often appeared in promotions with a T -Shirt

"against the iraq war".

From below yes, but not necessarily picketing, sitting down, resisting, and struggling. All these assume the rich man's rules and try to sabotage it. We could just build the new in its midst.

The old is going to tumble down anyway. Our push isn't needed and resistance just gives them an excuse to push back. It's not about resisting their agenda, it's about exercising our own.

To me that means mostly localization, building sustainable economy right here, gardening, sharing, talking it up. The oppression is that we believe their history is the only one.
It's building small groups that can speak and trust one another and be in alignment. The small group is the unit of transformation.

Not gov't

In addition to Zinn's work I would suggest the works of Marcus Rediker and Peter Linbaugh, in particular "The Many Headed Hydra". Also the book "Gone To Croatan, Origins of America's Dropout Culture", by various writers. I'm happy to see Mortensen mention Shays Rebellion, a true revolution that failed yet reveals much about our current Empire of the Elite Class.

""Howard Zinn's work also reminds us that we always need to ask: what stories am I not hearing? Whose voices am I not hearing? And that if no one is telling our stories, we need to find ways -- creative, dynamic -- ways of telling them ourselves.""
*************************************************************************************

This 'illuminates' the core of america's problem that urgently needs fixing because a republic such is ours that is supposed to be governed democratically just can't with only 4 conservative owners controlling the msm so naturally the people just won't know what information is real or if they are even getting the real information and they know how to shift through all the fluff and emptiness presented to them and it would be comforting to know that people as yourself and others are trying to address this situation because where I and others on this site or the internet can dig down to find what is really happening, there are at least as many and more likely more people that just don't get what the need from the msm they habitually continue to turn to for more entertainment (which very abundant) that the information they need ( which is very sparse) and that leaves what is now commonly known as the msm vegetable garden.

the HOBBIT

in the LORD of the RIngs - by JRR TOLKIEN in which Mortensen appeared as the King Aragorn - among others, like wizards, Elves with their great magical ways, the highly durable and industrious dwarves, the world of humans, - their allies in the animal world and other magical beings -- arrayed against the oppression of Sauron with his Ring of Power that had to be destroyed ...because it corrupts anyone that takes it..and before sauron regains it and NONE will be able to defy him if he does...

the HOBBIT is the "little people" - literally (they are , in the story, less than 4 feet tall.."given to eating, and storytelling, and singing and laughing , and not inclined to fights..but DAUNTLESS when aroused")

whose actions - save the Middle Earth and ALL in it from the growing oppression and tyranny and darkness of Sauron and his minions.

it was the HOBBITS and HOBBITS ALONE that would do -- or in fact, COULD do, what the GREATEST lords of the Elves or Men or Dwarves FEARED to do or could not..that even all their armies and magic and wisdom and "greatness" of their civilizations could not ever hope to achieve. defeat sauron...

UNLESS someone - was willing to do the most dangerous and THANKLESS effort - and even die in loneliness trying to achieve it" destroy the Ring of Power by throwing it in the volcano where it was forged - deep in sauron's territory.

and when NONE of the "great ones" could or would take the RIng to bring it to the volcano for fear that it would overwhelm them with its own temptations -

only the HOBBITS Frodo and Sam and his friends COULD step

up

and "where angels feared to tread".

I think this is an allegory - that mortensen probably was helped to evolve in his study of that role in "LORD OF THE RINGS"...

as it actually also reflects our realities:

that it IS "the little people" who move history.

In my Nolan Chart column "Essential Science Fiction and Fantasy for Libertarians" (http://www.nolanchart.com/article4700.html ) I made this comment:

Tolkien's work is relevant to libertarians for two reasons. First, it portrays what Kropotkin referred to as the "folk-mote form of self-government", and the equivalent form "moot" can be seen in the terms "Shiremoot" and "Entmoot" for these general meetings for consensus-based decision-making. (Many of William Morris's fantasy novels had previously described such societies.) Second, while the trilogy is not an allegory, the ring provides an example of Power Over Others -- the kind of power that practically no one is worthy enough to wield ("least of all those who seek the opportunity", as Tolkien put it in a letter, only an Aragorn or a Viggo Mortensen might qualify), the kind of power that almost inevitably corrupts anyone that holds it, and that is a deadly temptation even to figures like Gandalf and Galadriel.

Viggo's column only reinforces my opinion of him.

--

Dan Clore

Smygo: News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Eyrie of the Arch-Anarch:
http://www.nolanchart.com/author341.html

Viggo, thanks for being a conscious artist. We need more of them in this world, and especially right now.

Those who would take over the earth
And shape it to their will
Never, I notice, succeed.
The earth is like a vessel so sacred
That at the mere approach of the profane
It is marred
And when they reach out their fingers it is gone.
For a time in the world some force themselves ahead
And some are left behind,
For a time in the world some make a great noise
And some are held silent,
For a time in the world some are puffed fat
And some are kept hungry,
For a time in the world some push aboard
And some are tipped out:
At no time in the world will a man who is sane
Over-reach himself,
Over-spend himself,
Over-rate himself.

Power to the people.

CORP IS BORG.

I used to listen to Viggo read his poetry at fundraisers for the cultural center Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach years ago, and I had read and loved and learned so much from Howard Zinn's book. So when Voices of a People's History came to Portland, I went -- mostly to see Viggo -- and was completely blown away by how great it was. It was so powerful. The performers, many of whom were unknown to me, were incredibly talented. There were some very passionate readings. There was a poet who read Cindy Sheehan's words from the night she decided to go to Crawford and ask George Bush why her son had to die. That one brought me to tears. Howard Zinn's wife had just died earlier that week and Eddie Vedder sang a couple of songs as a tribute to her. It was truly one of the best nights out I have ever had. If you have the chance to see the show live, don't miss it.